food to glow

As you will see from the side bar to the right, just under the slightly smug looking photo of me (I really need to find a new one), I work with a cancer charity. A particularly fabulous and well-respected one at that. I am so proud, and fortunate, to be a part of the team in both Edinburgh and Kirkcaldy. Inspiring ethos, centre users, colleagues – even the buildings are inspiring. Not many people can say that about their workplace environment. Everyone involved, from the volunteers to the senior staff do a marvellous job helping to support those with cancer and their loved ones. I just thought I would tell you a little about what I do before I get to the recipe. I have written about this before so I won’t be offended if you skip right to the recipe. I won’t be even be offended if this is the first time you have clapped eyes on this blog and you decide to leap on  over. Although I should tell you I do have a sixth sense – the mother sense – so I will know. Now sit up straight, and stop slouching… 

So, what do I do? Well, while the brilliant support specialists (who have worked as nurses or radiographers) and clinical psychologists do their thing, and the fund-raisers help to keep everything ticking over, I get the fantastic job of teaching healthy eating and ‘chemo-eating’ to cancer patients and their friends and family. How fab is that? We chat about food facts and fallacies, and trade nutrition and cooking tips for getting through treatment, and beyond. The merits of a plant-centred diet are posited as by far the best option for most people recovering from cancer treatment, although those on active treatment are encouraged to eat their normal diet as far as possible, but with a few tweaks. No big changes for now. Just planning for change, however big or small. For any of you reading this who are not affected by cancer, I would encourage you to also eat more from the plant world, maybe by having an extra portion of fruit or veg at every meal, or by having at least a few meat-free meals a week. Perhaps I am preaching to the choir…

You might be surprised to know that for a ‘cancer centre’ there’s a whole lot of laughter. In the nutrition groups it’s usually at my expense: I may have a frustrated comedian hiding in here somewhere. I always feel a bit bad if there’s a quieter group meeting nearby, perhaps learning some meditation techniques or doing a bit of tai chi, because it’s not just laughter it’s my loud, fifteen year-old juicer, too. Oh dear. I try and save them a bit of food so hopefully we’re even.

Anyway, after the main bit of the chat we sit down to a three course vegetarian lunch, usually a soup, a few seasonal salads – one grain or bean-based and one vegetabley, some kind of vegan dip – or herbed oil – and bread, followed by a healthy cake or crumble and some colourful fruit. The favourite sweet is definitely my chocolate beetroot cake, which I make as muffins because I am a terrible at neat slicing. I am willing to bet I flunked ‘cutting’ at kindergarten. For what it’s worth I am gradually writing up and blogging the most popular/least leftovered recipes.

People are sometimes surprised that I don’t run the course as a cooking demonstration. This is mainly because some patients are particularly  sensitive to cooking smells, but also because I am desperately messy, using every pan in sight. So, I make the food at home, bringing it in where either the completely indispensible, long-suffering Jim (Edinburgh), or the uber-sensible and calm Cathie (Kirkcaldy) heat and stir with minimal instruction from me. Thanks guys!

At the Edinburgh centre I also counsel individuals who might have special dietary needs – those who need to eat a low-fibre diet, for example. We sit in a cosy, calm room overlooking a granite cube fountain that gently burbles away just beyond the floor to ceiling window, me trying to to remember to let the visitor choose the seat with the view. So calming, with the quiet trickle harmonising with the crisper rustle of the surrounding bamboo. Can you picture it?  Diet is my specialist subject, but we talk about the importance of stress management and physical activity, too. The well-designed and beautifully furnished rooms and spaces at all the Maggie’s Centres certainly help to relieve stress and tension.

And so does soup. Who doesn’t get a curled up and calming feeling from a bowl of soup? But funnily enough a colleague, who is a friend and good Irish cook, just last week said that she doesn’t make soup beyond St Patrick’s Day. She has it nearly every lunchtime during winter so by mid-March is itching to embrace something fresher. So I hope this one just slips under the wire for her to maybe try and make. I’m bringing this in for Wednesday’s session but I sometimes feel a bit shy about bringing in soup and baked goods. You see, the Scottish are premier league at soups and baking, whereas this American is a Sunday kick around the park girl who occasionally gets one in the net.

So, that’s me. That’s what I do. Thanks for bearing with me. Normal, not-so- serious Kellie resumes next time. Probs with some crispy olive oil flatbreads. Save some soup for these guys because, although maybe not premier league, perhaps they are at least second division. First division if you count how easy they are and how well they keep. Unless you like them as much as we do (she writes staring at an empty Tupperware box). Time to drag out the rolling pin. Again…

Lemony Broccoli, Leek and Tarragon Soup

More calories: Add in 100 ml of double cream, crème fraiche or non-dairy cream substitute when just heated through, or drizzle over best olive oil for each serving.